In addressing a group of Chinese students in Oxford University, UK, the Dalai Lama reiterated his call for friendship between Han Chinese and Tibetan people. He went on to say that "historically the Han and Tibetan peoples can and should be friends.” Historically for 400 years all Shugden and non-Shugden people, high Lamas and laypeople, had been friends. Then, the Dalai Lama said he had made a mistake about his 40 years of practice of Shugden; and His Holiness imposed the ban on Shugden practice in 1996. Overnight, friends became enemies.Historically, there is little, indeed no, reason for Shugden and non-Shugden people not to be friends. May the Dalai Lama lift the ban so that Shugden and non-Shugden people can unite and become friends once again.
The Dalai Lama spoke of his three commitments – the promotion of human values and happiness for all-beings, the promotion of religious harmony and preservation of Tibet's Buddhist culture of peace and non-violence. May the Dalai Lama manifest these commitments in lifting the ban on Shugden practice so that suffering of Shugden practitioners will end, harmony within the Tibetan Buddhist community will prevail, conflict and violence against Shugden people will stop, and peace will reign over all once more.